Imagawa

The Imagawa were a Japanese clan from Suruga Province. The ancestor of the clan, Yoshiuji Ashikaga, established himself at Imagawa in Mikawa Province, taking the name of the town. From the 1540s to the 1550s, Yoshimoto Imagawa attempted to make the clan the most powerful in eastern Japan, rivalling the Takeda, Uesugi, and Hojo clans for control of Kanto; they would alternate between being allies and enemies. In addition, the Imagawa subjected the Matsudaira/Tokugawa clan to vassalage, making them powerful foes of the Oda clan. In 1560, against all odds, Nobunaga Oda destroyed the much larger Imagawa army at the Battle of Okehazama, and Yoshimoto was slain. Within a decade, the clan had lost all of its holdings to the Tokugawa and Takeda clans.